Trees, trees, trees

I was talking to Erin on the phone earlier today and she happened to say, "Oh, it's so sad that the trees are gone, I wonder what the house looks like...?" A wave of queasiness washed over me. "What do you mean...our house?!?" We have these 3 gigantic, magnificent live oaks in our front yard back home in Boerne (it's a German name, "Bernie"), they're gorgeous! The last couple of years, they've been fighting the dreaded oak wilt, which we are certain they caught from the tree next door. That one is dead and gone. My parents immediately called in the tree doctors, and it would be rather amusing, telling you all the stuff the poor trees have gone through, if it wasn't such a horrible situation. Medicine, waiting, trimming, waiting...medicine, more waiting...We love the trees! They're huge, and shade the whole yard and house. Though they aren't the easiest trees to climb, due to a lack of lower limbs, we kids were determined and did climb, because you just can't not climb a big ol' oak tree. We've lain under their branches lazily watching the ants in the grass on a slow day. Our various cats have frolicked among them. Squirrels have dashed from limb to limb, from tree to tree. They're just awesome.

But luckily, Erin said, "What? Oh...I mean a house back in Utah...never mind. Pregnancy brain." My heart lightened. "Oh, whew!!! I thought you meant they finally had to cut down the oak trees back home! But I'm sure I would have known about that...but, haha, you know how it is sometimes. Mom thinks she's told everyone some big piece of news, but really you didn't ever hear about it! Then you say to her, 'Mom, you never told me!' and she says, 'Oh, I thought I had! It's hard to keep track of who you tell things to sometimes!'" Erin agreed, then said, "Oh! Can I call you right back?" No problem, probably a small child is being a bit too quiet...

I was so relieved to hear that the trees were still fighting, when Erin called back: "So, I was talking about the trees in our yard." What in the world???? "You didn't seem to know about it, so I called Mom really quickly and asked if you didn't know, and she said everyone knows. I wasn't sure if she was saving it as a surprise...you know, see if you'd notice when you got down there! But apparently she's not." That would be a wonderful surprise...

So I'm really sad about the trees! This is what I heard: They took out 2 of the 3. We had a big one growing out of an island of ivy. Small animals hide in that ivy. Our cats loved it. The ivy is still there, but not big oak tree, sheltering it from the hot Texas sun. My parents plan to buy another oak tree, one that's immune to oak wilt, and plant it there, but it'll be so dinky! For a while...Then we had two growing pretty close together, and one of them is gone. Sigh. I will really miss those trees, they were big ones, probably 100 years old or so. Not easily replaced.

This gorgeous tree is the one of the two that are close together that we lost...the one barely in the photo on the left is still around apparently. Now where will we stand for pictures??? For some reason we usually stand in front of this tree when we take pics in the front yard...

So the tree we're standing in front of (Christmas 2005) and the big spreading one in the background are gone...

Another picture of the oak tree in the ivy. This is with our Belgian cat, Zoe, who lives with my parents. Tree now gone, Zoe still there...last I heard, anyway...

Hmmm...not that great of a shot of the trees, but the trunk of our gorgeous middle oak that has been yanked out of our yard and our lives...in the very back to the right, the ivy "island" with the trunk of that wonderful oak...I will surely miss them! Oh, and Queenie, a normally very fluffy kitty who gets shaved during the summer so she can deal with the heat. She's gone now, too (She was old, and this pic is from July 2006...maybe she died of embarrassment, just wanted to avoid the summer shave...).

I know I have a great picture of the front yard somewhere, showing all 3 trees nice and large, not just the trunks...I'll look for it. Maybe it won't be so bad, getting to TX next week and seeing the one lonely oak...it's hard to believe, though. I must say, I would much rather lose a tree to oak wilt than one of my loved ones, though! Not that they would get oak wilt...but I'm pointing out that I do realize that people are more important! I will still miss the trees...